With this year more than halfway over, 2020 will soon be here. As a legal recruiter, you work within a highly competitive industry filled with “type A” personalities who are all vying for the attention of the same candidates and clients. As a result, now is the time to pause and reflect upon what’s worked, and what hasn’t so far in 2019, and to develop a game plan for next year based on what you’ve learned. Rest assured that the top recruiting firms are not waiting until January to update their marketing strategies, so use these ideas now to prepare for 2020.
While 2020 may seem far off, there are several things legal headhunters can do now to start planning for the new year, like a taking inventory of where you currently stand as a business and your available positions, identifying new goals to work towards, fine-tuning your budget, and improving your awareness and recruitment strategies. Read on how these steps can drastically change up (and improve) your marketing strategy.
Take a Mid-Year “Inventory” of Available Positions
To be successful, your firm should serve as the eyes and ears of those you represent. That means clients and candidates should always view your recruiting firm as a knowledgeable resource they can place their trust in.
To determine if you’re currently meeting those needs, sit down and honestly ask yourself these questions about your recruiting strategies:
- Are we projecting a nationwide, or even global, presence?
- Are we attracting the right talent?
- Are we consistently hitting our monthly and quarterly recruiting goals?
- Do we have a suitable client base?
- Are our placement and retention success rates high?
- Are we effectively using the latest recruiting technologies?
- Is our catalog of attorneys just as diverse as our portfolio of firms?
- Is our recruitment budget enough?
- Which recruitment resources are working? Which aren’t?
Once you’ve taken an honest mid-year “inventory” of your firm, it’s time to make some changes.
Setting the Bar Higher for Your Firm
Your current marketing strategy may be underperforming for several reasons. The most talented attorney candidates are also the hardest to reach due to their nature. Prospective clients right in your backyard may not be contacting you because you’re not showing up in their Internet searches. In fact, by the year 2021, digital marketing will make up nearly half of all advertising, making it a necessity to have a robust and effective online marketing strategy.
No matter the reason, why continue using ineffective marketing tactics for the rest of this year? Once you’ve identified that your current marketing approach needs an upgrade, there are many ways to set the recruiting bar higher as 2020 approaches.
Boost Your Brand Awareness
If there’s a recruiting firm just down the street that’s outperforming you, how do they market? Once you’ve determined what you’re up against, here are some ways to be more competitive:
- Job fairs. Does your firm have a noticeable presence at legal job fairs across the country, notably at prestigious law schools? Are you actively participating in various legal organization events?
- Advertising. An RIBreport found that current advertising spend is hovering around 5% of gross profits on average. Is your firm advertising effectively, especially online? If not, now is the time to make some changes. Consider creating a digital flyer highlighting your firm’s strengths and experience that can be inserted in an email like a photo to all hiring managers or candidates who contact you.
- Website. Your website should quickly tell visitors that they’ve come to the right place. Do you have an introduction video on your home page that tells potential clients who you are? If your agency is MIA on the first Google search results page, it’s time to partner with a digital marketing agency to get found.
- Additional content marketing. Look at ways to use social media more creatively. Every member of your recruiting team has an area-of-expertise, so take turns writing blog articles for your website and post them on LinkedIn and other platforms. Hire an experienced Web content writer to produce quarterly emails and newsletters that you can share with current and potential clients to stay in touch.
Explore High-Tech Recruiting Tools
New technology is a cost-effective way for recruiters to save time while maximizing their efforts. And, firms that embrace newer technologies typically attract more clients and candidates. Here are some high-tech recruiting tools to investigate at the mid-year point:
- Conducting Artificial Intelligence (AI) phone screening interviews
- Using a legal applicant tracking system (ATS) to follow candidates
- Partnering with a human resource management service (HRMS)
- Distributing a digital flyer to make a more lasting impression
Find-Tune Your Budget
As a team, look at your current budget and make the necessary adjustments based on your 2020 goals. If you’re the firm’s manager, use this mid-year budgeting process to analyze both your cost-per-hire and recruiting yield ratios. Also, look for ways to better incentivize your top recruiters beginning now rather than later. After all, good legal recruiters are also in high demand!
Local Legal Recruiters Who Help You Plan Ahead
Whether you’re a legal recruiter, a gifted lawyer seeking a career move, or a hiring manager at a law firm or corporation, planning-ahead is important. Good legal headhunters are adept at using their insider contacts, networking relationships and candidate-screening capabilities to connect talented attorneys with potential employers so that all parties involved win. To search now for a better legal recruiter in your locality, please visit The Legal Recruiter Directory.
